2024/12/04 by Elvira Bilokon, Bilokon, Elvira, Valeriia Bilokon +9 · 2 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Cold Atom Physics and Bose-Einstein Condensates #FOS: Physical sciences #Quantum Physics (quant-ph) #Quantum and electron transport phenomena #Quantum optics and atomic interactions #Strongly Correlated Electrons (cond-mat.str-el)
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2412.03495
openalex publication_date 2024/12/04 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Understanding quantum tunneling in many-body systems is crucial for advancing quantum technologies and nanoscale device design. Despite extensive studies of quantum tunneling, the role of interactions in determining directional transport through asymmetric barriers in discrete quantum systems remains unclear. Here we show that noninteracting fermions exhibit symmetric tunneling probabilities regardless of barrier orientation, while inter-particle interactions break this symmetry and create pronounced asymmetric tunneling behavior. We explore the dependence of tunneling behavior on the initial spin configurations of two spin-1/2 fermions: spin-triplet states preserve tunneling symmetry, while spin-singlet states show strong asymmetry. We identify regimes where interactions mediate tunneling through under-barrier resonant trapping and enhance tunneling via many-body resonant tunneling -- a phenomenon arising solely from inter-particle interactions and being fundamentally different from traditional single-particle resonant tunneling. Our results may be applied to the design of nanoscale devices with tailored transport properties, such as diodes and memristors.